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Susan Cowger

Art & Poetry

Art Poetry

May 9. Nine Strophes

by Susan Cowger 12 Comments

Hoar Frost. You don’t need a picture.
Memory does it for you, imbedding words into being.
Yet there are also words with no visuals.
Abstractions like hot and smothered. Sigh.
How interesting that God describes Himself as the Word.
Covering both universe and nothing. 
God’s name is not Word, He is Word.
But He has many names.
Is there any honor greater than being named?
Apricot tree.
Magpie.
Ice.
A name,
being invited in,
winning the draw, finally chosen.
You are.
  
Billions of dirt brown birds,
 along with hairs and stars and sand on the beach
 and ubiquitous shreds of plastic
 gently rolling down a pitted street in Africa
… becoming something.  
The Word says I will have a new name in Heaven.
Names, unpronounceable here 
no doubt,  but  I imagine there
one syllable  in every name
to be yes.
*

May 9, 2011 Blog

Previous Post: « May 7 Mother’s Day Weekend
Next Post: May 13th. Thirteen Words »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan Cowger says

    May 14, 2011 at 5:29 pm

    Blogspot had a glitch and I lost some comments. If you happen back here, please post again!

    Susan (Goat)

    Reply
  2. Magpie says

    May 12, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    Thank you for sharing your experience with your camera and believe me it's all good. I agree with you so much. The deepest memories I have were of me in the moment – not photographing it. But by strange coincidence, sometimes the act of taking a picture pulls me into the moment and it becomes about the interaction between life and me manipulating my camera. Thank you for visiting. I love finding talented and gifted people to share thoughts with. I'll be visiting again. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Timoteo says

    May 12, 2011 at 4:23 am

    Coordinating intriguing visuals with exquisite verse is a real talent. And you have it on both ends!

    Reply
  4. Randy Behavior says

    May 12, 2011 at 3:27 am

    Its strange how a theme, or message comes into one's life repeatedly, like "divine name." Now I'm left to wonder what to do with this information.

    Reply
  5. Imperfectly_Leah_Too says

    May 12, 2011 at 2:13 am

    It really enjoyed this. wonderfully written and visually inviting by seeing the outcome.

    Reply
  6. Beachanny says

    May 11, 2011 at 11:43 pm

    This is beautiful, intriguing and something more than poetry. I liked taking that unusual journey through the stream of your consciousness. It gave me another view of familiar questions. Thank you, Gay

    Reply
  7. dustus says

    May 11, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    Love this passage "Yet there are also words with no visuals.
    Abstractions like hot and smothered. Sigh."
    Really dig the photography too.

    Reply
  8. Brian Miller says

    May 11, 2011 at 12:15 pm

    amen. a name gives us identity, chosen, special…by the hand of God

    Reply
  9. Mommy Emily says

    May 10, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    i love how you see life, friend. and i've been thinking about how Jesus renamed his disciples, and what his name is for me… and wanting to live up to that name. and i think hoar frost is deserving of a much more beautiful name 🙂

    Reply
  10. Keisha Valentina says

    May 10, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    Beautiful.

    Reply
  11. Laura B. says

    May 9, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    Naming someone establishes their identity…name calling can effect negative change…at least in one's mind, it can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. What changes will there be with a new name? What wonderful things do we not knew about ourselves that could be identified only by All-Knowing?

    Reply
  12. Craig and Bethany says

    May 9, 2011 at 10:41 pm

    Oh, the turn at the end! All that naming and still, you completely caught me off guard. Yes. Complete nourishment in a word. Yes, yes. Perhaps we're all simply longing to be told that at the very core or our being we are a yes.

    Reply

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